Then and now: Van Sickle history
Ranching used to be a big part of Lake Tahoe.
But cows are no longer allowed in the basin for environmental reasons and only a few horses remain.
However, the history of the area is still visible. And names like Van Sickle have been immortalized through the bi-state park at the state line on the South Shore.
Here are photos from that area:
— Bill Kingman
Bill Kingman, That colored sign on the front of The Vansickle barn, wasn’t that on the edge of hwy 50 about where Raleys is now? I reckognised it as soon as I saw the photo. I think there was a wooden sign below it that said “Stables” with an arrow pointing up the hill.
Memory is a funny thing, sometimes right, sometimes wrong. Either way, great pictures and story! Thanks, OLS
thanks for the memories, Bill!
Wonderful memories, Bill. I probably saw these buildings when I was a child, but can’t be sure. I wish the Barton Ranch could be preserved as well.
Thanks for the memories. Bill It would be great if we could save the Barton Ranch.
It is too bad that the planners could not have saved a bit of the Crescent name at the center.
As always, love the trip down memory lane that your photos provide.
Bob Fleischer, Laura, Fifty year resident. Yeah! If we can save The Van Sickle barn, lets save The Barton Ranch as well, and turn it into a museum showing what a early Tahoe ranch house looked like!!!
We’ve got to save what’s left of Tahoe’s past, It’s well worth it!!! ! OLS
Thank you for the memories. I remember the barn at Hwy 50 as a child. I love all the history you remind us “old timers” about. Keep up the great work.
Bill, Thank you for posting a huge part of my childhood. The first two pictures were a bit before I met Jack VanSickle, but when the barn moved up to what was later to become…Stateline Stables, this is where it began for me.
In the 70’s I was there every weekend and many times after school mucking stalls, grooming horses, and giving guided and leading out unguided trail rides for tourist at the high cost of $5/hour. There were a few other kids doing the same and our great reward was riding for FREE. Steve Smith leased Jack’s land for many years, while Andy and Stephanie Cormandy managed Stateline Stables. Dr. Borges’s parents had their HUGE horses on the property and they ran the evening hay rides after stable hours. At the end of the hay rides a BBQ meal was enjoyed by all as they would gather around the bales of hay behind the barn and tell old…really old Tahoe stories. Your third photo is the back of the barn where there is now a fence, this is where folks would gather for the BBQ.
Ohhh the sign. Well, first of all that is not the same sign that was at the corner on Hwy.50. That sign was smaller and I “think” it was destroyed during construction of the new CV. It was identical in looks, but not size. The sign on the back of the barn has always been there and it is much larger than the one that was at Hwy.50. But yes, there was that arrow pointing up the hill, telling those tourist where to go! Both signs had lights in them that lit up like a casino. Funny thing is… I went into Angie’s Signs a few years ago for some work and she had that sign in her shop. I screamed with excitement! I told her many stories and even the horses names! (Palomino is Farrah and Appaloosa is Bozo) The sign had some vandalism and sun fading and Angie restored it. She happened to know the artist who made them! Angie you’re Awesome!
Those where some great memories of working hard, playing hard and having some good old fashion fun and staying out of trouble.
In the 80’s Jack’s daughter, Hedie took over the Stateline Stables with her bother, Wayne… Steve Smith moved his herd out to Zephyr Cove… And me, well, I got a car…
OWB.. Nice post.
OWB, thank you so much for sharing and clarifying! — BK
Mr. Kingman,
Your research is outstanding and brings to life our area back to it’s early days.
From the Van Sickle barn towards the lake is an area I’ve been trying to research. I believe one of the first hotels was built there in the 1860s. It was built by Billy Lapham and called the Lapham’s Station and stood between the barn and the lake roughly 100 yards from what was called Lapham’s Landing (now Lakeside Marina). On the other side of the road were the famous barn and stables. The Nevada stateline had been surveyed there in the 1860s so both the hotel and horse barn would have been close to the line. The hotel was said to have it’s dining room in both states. A new survey in the 1890s moved the Stateline roughly 2000 feet to it’s current location. When the hotel burned down and was rebuilt it was named Lakeside House.
The area was named Lakeside Park in the 1890s and the first South Tahoe subdivision was created in 1909 bordered by the Lincoln Hwy, Stateline Blvd, Lakeshore Blvd and Park Ave. The total land holdings were approx. 2000 acres and after the Lakeside Park Subdivision was formed, the remaining acres were what was is now the Meadows.
If you’ve got any history on this I’d be excited to see it.
Old White Barn, Thanks for the great story. I just KNEW I saw that sign on the hiway.
Bill Kingman, with all you’re doing with “Then and Now”, I hope you’re saving all this so it can be put into a book. I’m serious! There’s lots of interest out there for Tahoe history and there lots of folks still around with some stories to tell.
Thanks to everyone who contributes with there tales from yesteryear. Old Long Skiis